About Me
Nancy Donaldson
It’s ironic that I am a high school teacher at all, and here I am in my 10th year at WHS. I grew up in a suburb outside New York City, went to high school with the nuns, and hated it. They were a tough bunch and taught us well. When I graduated, I vowed to never solve another trigonometry problem or write another research paper. The year was 1969.
Not wanting to miss out on the great events of my generation, I enrolled as an art major at American University in Washington D.C. where I was able to attend anti-war rallies. A few years later I headed west; attended the University of New Mexico; the Instituto Allende in Mexico and finally graduated from UT here in Austin with a Bachelors of Fine Arts. I did keep my original vow- I never did solve another trig problem after high school.
I have worn many hats in my adult life: I made a living as a potter, married a Texan, and moved to a small village in India. My husband had been contracted to build a school, so we raised our children in a small rural village. I home-schooled my older daughter, and later taught English in the school. When our daughters grew older, my husband and I moved back to Austin, where I returned to college and earned a teaching certificate. It was then, almost 40 years after high school, that I broke my second vow by writing a few research papers.
Now at Westlake, I teach English 2 as well as Reading Improvement. I still love to travel, and every summer I return to India; my younger daughter still lives there. My older daughter, her husband and my baby grandson, live with us. We are one of those cutting-edge, boomerang families that fascinate modern economists. I have let the pottery go, am a summer-time painter who's developing a passion to write, and I still love rock music.
Not wanting to miss out on the great events of my generation, I enrolled as an art major at American University in Washington D.C. where I was able to attend anti-war rallies. A few years later I headed west; attended the University of New Mexico; the Instituto Allende in Mexico and finally graduated from UT here in Austin with a Bachelors of Fine Arts. I did keep my original vow- I never did solve another trig problem after high school.
I have worn many hats in my adult life: I made a living as a potter, married a Texan, and moved to a small village in India. My husband had been contracted to build a school, so we raised our children in a small rural village. I home-schooled my older daughter, and later taught English in the school. When our daughters grew older, my husband and I moved back to Austin, where I returned to college and earned a teaching certificate. It was then, almost 40 years after high school, that I broke my second vow by writing a few research papers.
Now at Westlake, I teach English 2 as well as Reading Improvement. I still love to travel, and every summer I return to India; my younger daughter still lives there. My older daughter, her husband and my baby grandson, live with us. We are one of those cutting-edge, boomerang families that fascinate modern economists. I have let the pottery go, am a summer-time painter who's developing a passion to write, and I still love rock music.